Please allow BSTs on new TLP

for anybody worried that BSTs will become the next "pet wall" class, you don't need to be concerned. mages are still far superior for pet walling. you won't see boxers rolling BSTs for pet walling for many reasons, chiefly that BST pets cost too much mana to maintain. also because they BST itself cannot do damage due to needing to be in melee range. beastlords and zerkers are literally just another class that are no more imbalanced than existing classes for the era.

Let them Play!

All classes are balanced based on today's era, so this argument makes no sense.

I was against this initially (See page 2), but the other day I used my Origin AA then gated bake to my bindpoint. So yeah.

I wouldn't be opposed to BL's in the TLP, but they would definitely need some re-tuning. It seems like their spells and abilities are really front-loaded to help the average character blow thru the early levels quickly. Their spells start high (i.e. lvl 12 spirit of lightning procs 62pt dd vs. mage water pets 14pt dd) and eventually even out (lvl 53 spirit of the storm procs 122pt dd vs lvl 54 mage water pet 112pt dd), so I think they would need some front-end tuning, but 50+ should blend in just fine. To look at some of the beastlord specific stuff:

Pet heals:
Pet heals are ~2x the size and efficiency of Nec / Mage pet heals (pre-lvl 60 or so) - being able to heal a pet for 45pts at lvl 9 and at nearly 2x the efficiency (of mage/nec heals) would make your pet a complete machine. Granted, BST heals continue to be the best in the game, but they are not THAT much better once you get to lvl 60 or so.
Bst only nukes:
Blast of Frost - Level 12 / Ice Spear - lvl 33 / etc. - This entire line of spells is OP and would need to be removed. It lines up with the SK Spike of Disease / Spear of Disease spells and the Ranger Arrow spells that aren't in the TLP. They still get the weaker and more appropriate line of SHM nukes, which are fine.
Bst Warder Buffs:
Spirit of Lightning - Level 13 - Procs 62pt DD - These are also WAY OP...Mage pet Water Elemental pets proc a 11-14dmg DD at this level. These need to be retuned up to about lvl 54 (as shown above).

I would think if they nerf the heals and warder buffs to align them more closely to nec/mage and remove the bst only nukes they should be relatively even with other classes.

Beastlords in early game days relied heavily on pet to do most anything. some of their spells now were not around when originally released. Since the retuning of their dps during HoT era, new lower lvl spells were added to be more in line with these changes. Their pets are substantially weaker but as necros and mages can dps on their own without pets, bstlord melee is about the same as a bard. So while you're focusing on the pet, you're not focusing on the overall class.

Side edit, bstlord requires extreme mana dumps to do any kind of sustainable decent dps.

If i was daybreak my first priority would be to make a new client that is closer to the original EQ with the damage that each classes were doing in 1999.I would also get the zones the way they were in those days aka east and west commonlands, west, east and north freeport and so fourth.I think those would bring far more people to the new server compare to have bst and zerker in classic.Remember that it hasn't been the 1st time since Ragefire launch that this topic has been ask and the answer has always been the same.I highly doubt that there's many people who like only 1 class. During my 11 years of playing EQ i have seen far more that when i ask them which class you like answer me with oh i like many classes.

Well, 62-pt pet DD proc and a 71-pt DD nuke all by lvl 13 for a hybrid seems like a little too much for me. By the time SoE introduced them in Luclin, they probably didn't care much about tuning them to be on par with other classes from 0-30 because everyone just blew thru those levels, but with the TLP servers, that 0-30 play isn't (as) trivial anymore.

Sounds like people are trying to come up with an after reading through this. Just play the game.

As was already mentioned, you cannot look at one component of the class without looking at the whole class, and then compare it to the others. If you parse a BST against a MAG at any level, the MAG will come out ahead every time. 62 pt DD or not. Their melee DPS is on par with bards (no early double attack). The DPS gap only increases at higher levels. You cannot consider level 13 the point in which you balance them. At level 60, every true DPS class is ahead of BST dps (assuming appropriately geared).

Newsflash:
Monks have just been removed from the game.

Just play the game bro.

Oh wait...

Talking lizards are awesome, but talking cats and frogs broke your fantasy roleplay immersion? Ok.

I would play a beastlord for the first time ever if they made them available from the start on the new TLP, so throwing my yes vote in here.

Then I'd play another class. Your point?

That's what I've been doing. While I like some aspects of a few classes, Beastlord is the only class I truly enjoy playing.

I realize this is hard to do, but try putting yourself in somebody elses' shoes. Beastlord is the only class you enjoy playing in Everquest. Your class will not be available for 1-2 years. What are your options? Quit, or play something you don't enjoy.

While I don't have a class I truly personally enjoy over another, I was a huge fan of PoP. I don't quit just to wait till then, or beg for it right now either.

I can understand you wanting this class to be released early. I am just a firm believe in if you're rolling on a TLP and that expansion is not current yet, than you should wait. If you want to play a beast until it's opened than maybe play on Live for fun. For people who want things out of era in an earlier era, maybe they should look into emulators. But if they accept the wait and are having fun currently than by all means keep doing so. I just hope they don't screw up future servers over things like this is all.

You make perfectly valid points. But with this special ruleset server, DBG is making concessions to give the playerbase what they want (Out of era Instancing and No-Boxing.) They are making these concessions because it will increase their revenue (by means of subscriber retention). Adding beastlords fall into this same category of adding features to the game that will increase player population and overall player satisfaction.

This is a modern era where improvements and additions to a 15 year old game are being done to retain (and bring back) the playerbase. DBG has the attention of thousands of players that have come back to the game to play on these TLPs. They are not gaining new subscribers, they are simply gaining returning subscribers. It is in their best interest to implement features that have have a popular demand to keep those returning players.

Look at it this way. You aren't going to stop playing because you are annoyed at seeing a beastlord running around out of era. But there will certainly be many players that won't play on these TLPs until they are unlocked. Many of those players will never return if their attention isn't held. All of this affects the DBG bottom line, which will allow them to continue thriving as a company.

I understand your concern and also see your point. We just differ on opinion there.

I will say though as far as new players, I've personally been promoting the hell out of these TLP's to my WoW guild members who have never tried it. A few of them have came over, some stuck around and others didn't care for it. I'm always trying to get more people to give EQ a shot

So... you want to open progression content outside of progression sequence on a progression server?

And as for Beastlords are years away... Beastlords came with Luclin.. that's probably like 3-4 months away on Ragefire by the time the new progression server is released.

Can't speak for the OP, but as for me, the new server will have instancing and no-boxing. Ragefire will not. That is one of the primary reasons why I will be rolling on the new TLP... Ragefire will no longer be appealing to me.

Also, beastlords on RF being 3-4 months away from the new TLP launch is also assuming a lot of things will happen that have not been told to us. I'm also not sure why you're using that metric other than to skew perception on time frames.

I've been wanting to roll a beastlord from day 1 of the new TLP. To date, I've been waiting 4.5 months. By the time the new server launches, I will have waited roughly 6-7 months to play a beastlord. By the time Luclin launches (Likely 10-20 months after launch of new TLP), I will have waited a total of 17-27 months (1.5-2.5 years).

How long do you realistically think people will wait so that they can actually start playing the game the way they want to?

Augurdev, Lord of the Beastlords has returned to the EQ dev team! I have made him aware of our plight. May he save us!